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Welcome to the Transforming Cancer Services in South East Wales Programme- a Velindre NHS Trust initiative.

Cancer in Wales

Cancer is the second biggest cause of death in Wales.

According to Public Health Wales, there were 19,088 new cases of cancer in 2015 compared to 17,389 in 2006. The increase in cancer cases is part of a long term trend in Wales.

The main reason is the increase in older working-aged people in the population, the result of people living longer and the changing trends of cancer risk factors in our society.

The incidence of cancer is forecast to increase by 2% per year. Soon it is expected that one in two of us will develop cancer in our lifetime.

Why transform cancer services?

As the incidence of cancer is forecast to increase, so too is the number of referrals to Velindre Cancer Centre. By 2025 we forecast to see an 18% increase in referrals along with a 48% increase in demand for our radiotherapy machines.

Unless we transform the way we provide our cancer services, we’ll be unable to meet the future needs of our patients.

How will we transform cancer services?

Welsh Government has asked Velindre NHS Trust to develop a Business Case to improve cancer services across South East Wales.

Our Business Case will propose that we:

Build a new Velindre Cancer Centre

Build a satellite radiotherapy unit

Provide more care closer to our patient’s homes

Better integrate our specialist expertise with our colleagues in hospitals and GPs throughout South East Wales

FAQs

The incidence of cancer is forecast to increase by 2% per year. Soon it is expected that one in two of us, if born after 1960, will develop cancer in our lifetime.

As the incidence of cancer is forecast to increase, so too is the number of referrals to Velindre Cancer Centre. By 2025 we forecast to see an 18% increase in referrals along with a 48% increase in demand for our radiotherapy machines.

The current Velindre Cancer Centre site is approximately 3.69 hectares and it is ‘land locked’. This means that we do not have the necessary space to allow us to expand in future to provide treatment for the number of patients we expect to see.

No. During 2017 we will submit our final business cases to the Welsh Government and our Local Health Board partners, seeking approval to develop the various projects. These include the new Velindre Cancer Centre, a radiotherapy satellite centre and chemotherapy outreach centres. We expect to have a decision from our partners by the end of 2017.